To the editor:
Our New Hampshire senators understand how important the environment is to our economy, our children and our public health. This month, Senators Hassan and Shaheen will have an opportunity to confirm, or not, the nomination of Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency. I hope they oppose his nomination.
The EPA, after years of study, determined carbon pollution to be a public endangerment. In his own words, Pruitt doubts “the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind.” As attorney general of Oklahoma, Scott Pruitt joined a lawsuit against the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, calling it “unlawful and overreaching.” Former Senator Ayotte supported the plan, as do both of our senators today. The U.S. Senate must not confirm a person who would lead the EPA – only to deny the agency its obligation, sanctioned by the US Supreme Court, to put climate change solutions to work.
An EPA led by Mr. Pruitt would cement New Hampshire’s legacy as the ‘tailpipe of the nation” for decades to come. Pruitt has actually sued the EPA to stop vital protections for public health – including standards for reducing soot and smog pollution that crosses interstate lines. We need a reasonable person to lead the EPA, someone like past Republican EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman. It’s unacceptable to put New Hampshire’s environmental future in the hands of Scott Pruitt.
Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan will fight for New Hampshire’s clean air and safer drinking water, but they need to work with Senate colleagues in both parties to mount a bipartisan rejection of Trump’s choice to lead the EPA.
Bev Edwards
Temple